The developers over at Namco Bandai certainly got the license for the Japanese team’s faces and they do have what seem to be the correct names for all the other 60 teams in the league but I’m not totally sure how far the licensing goes. Licenses aside, the developer has included the ability to download players and teams created by others from XBOX Live, which is a very cool feature, and one I could see using if I actually enjoyed the game. That being said, the players all seem to have a unique face which does enhance the visual experience. Unfortunately they’re ugly textured faces only a mother could love.

Namco’s big selling point for this game has always been the realistic camera and how that plus the animation makes you feel like you’re really in the game. Well, while the camera is at player level and it does work pretty well most of the time, it does have a tendency to twist around really fast to the point where you get a bit nauseous. That coupled with the fact that the animation is actually pretty stiff and nowhere near realistically fluid makes me think the producers of this game said make it happen and when it didn’t they just went ahead with the already planned marketing campaign.

Man my face is low res...

The graphics of LoveFOOTBALL are actually a lot better than the still images make it look like. Yes the player textures are really low quality and look like they came straight from the Dreamcast, but they did see fit to add in quality lighting and anti-aliasing that makes it look better than a PS2 game. The sound is very average except for the decent announcer which is probably the only non-stock audio in the game.

While the end result that is LoveFOOTBALL isn’t the greatest football game out there, I’ll give some big kudos to the devs for at least attempting something very different. Here’s hoping they iron out all the kinks and come back with a sequel with jaw dropping visuals.


Playing the game is easy without Japanese knowledge but navigating the never-ending menus would be tough. If you don’t mind going through a lot of trial and error in story mode and in the menus then you should be fine.

• Unique football experience
  
• Story mode is pretty fun
  
• Downloadable characters and teams

• Retarded AI
  
• Wacky camera at times
  
• Last-generation graphics